Charitable Works

Charitable outreach is central to the vision of Mestre Gabriel and to the work of the UDV. Last year alone, the UDV’s charitable works positively impacted nearly 100,000 people.

Each local center of the UDV conducts charitable outreach activities that positively impact the greater communities in which they are located. Charitable projects range from food, clothing, book and toy drives, to partnerships with local non-governmental organizations and state agencies, to medical clinics run by volunteer doctors.

In addition to these ongoing projects, in 2002 the UDV launched the ‘Luz do Saber’ Literacy Training Project, providing literacy training to youth and adults in over 30 locations throughout Brazil.

This project, supported by several state governments, provides instruction in computer skills in addition to literacy training, and has already helped thousands of previously illiterate citizens to gain the knowledge necessary to be able to work and develop themselves within society.

Environmental awareness and nature preservation are also of key importance to members of the UDV, who in 1990 started the Novo Encanto Association, a distinct not-for-profit organization that seeks to preserve important areas of native rainforest in the Amazon Basin, Atlantic Forest and other regions of Brazil, as well as to raise environmental awareness.

Its largest reserve is the 20,000-acre ‘Seringal Novo Encanto’ extractivist reserve located in the state of Amazonas, Brazil.

The Association works hard to preserve this pristine forest against logging and deforestation, focusing preservation efforts on activities such as agro-forestry, Permaculture, eco-tourism and the sustainable harvest of Brazil nuts and natural latex.

In the United States, the New Enchantment Association was started as a sister organization to provide support and to partner on various projects with the Novo Encanto Association in Brazil, as well as to develop educational and preservation projects within the US.

Through these types of charitable and ecological initiatives, UDV members positively impact society and the environment, putting into practice the teachings of the UDV’s founder, Mestre Gabriel, whose life was dedicated to goodness, love of others, and a deep respect for and connection to Nature.